The following is a response to Faith and Belief Of all of the words that can be spoken, there is none whose meaning is more important to the spiritual seeker than Faith!
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More about FAITH!
As is the case with many words, faith has more than one meaning. In the more common usage, faith is an especially strongly held belief, usually in God. People may often remark that another person's faith is strong. This is the ordinary definition of faith (even though it really isn't all that ordinary.) This is NOT the meaning of the word faith referred to below which has more to do with the miraculous and mystical.
Jesus speaks of this mystical kind of Faith in the 17th chapter of Matthew in the Bible after his disciples try unsuccessfully to cure a boy who was possessed. The father of the boy asks Jesus to help, and Jesus cures the boy. Jesus' disciples then ask him why they had been unsuccessful. In verses 20 and 21, Jesus answers his disciples by saying,
"Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."In verse 21 (which begins with "Howbeit") Jesus also makes it clear that he is talking about a special (non-ordinary) kind of Faith since he does not say that "faith goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." but rather, "this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." (For those who do not know, mustard seeds are peculiar in that they are extremely small seeds.)As for the quintessential or archetypal story of Faith perhaps the best example is the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, for which Abraham has rightly been named the "Father of Faith." The reason why this story about Abraham is so momentous is that God never promised, nor even mentioned an afterlife or an eternal reward to Abraham or his ancestors. Abraham's only hope of life beyond death was that he would live on through Isaac and his descendents. So, for God to ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac was to ask him to destroy all hope and everything he held dear. If God had asked Abraham to sacrifice himself, that would not have been even remotely as terrible as asking him to sacrifice Isaac. It is the equivalent of God appearing to a modern day Christian, opening up a flaming pit of eternal torment in front of them, and saying, "My child, will you agree to go to Hell for all of eternity for my sake?" It suddenly becomes clear to the Christian that jumping into the pit is an irrevocable decision. It cannot be undone. The choice is excruciatingly real when absolutely everything depends on it. If Abraham had known, or even suspected that God was not going to have him actually sacrifice Isaac, then it would not have been Faith, but just an act. It was True Faith, because Abraham never for an instant doubted that he was going to 'go to hell for all of eternity' simply because God asked him to, and he loved God well enough that he was ready to obey. Who amongst us could love God that completely?
The story of Sisyphus can also be used as a metaphor for Faith. Sisyphus was condemned to spend all of eternity rolling a huge rock up a hill, only to have it roll back down just before it reached the top of the hill. This raises an obvious question: Why not simply give up? The answer must be that this is not simply a rock. There is more to it than that. The rock must represent all of Sisyphus' hopes, dreams, and desires. It is his entire world, and Sisyphus knows that the only way for all of these hopes, dreams, and desires to be realized is to bring them over the hill. One day, Sisyphus decides to try renunciation. He will give up some of his hopes, dreams and desires and simply do without. He begins chipping away at the rock, making it smaller and smaller. It does not help. Even when the rock is the size of a pea, or a grain of sand, it still trips him up at the top of the hill. Sisyphus must forgo the rock entirely. He must ABSOLUTELY give up all hopes, dreams, desires, and expectations. He has to completely let go of all of it, and especially his attachment to it. If Sisyphus can completely give up everything, then he can climb the hill without ever turning back, and be free. What's more, this act of absolute and complete renunciation would mystically become an act of Faith and he would get it all back. All of his dreams would come true, all of his hopes would be realized, and all of his desires would be fulfilled.
There is an added "Catch 22" problem in all of this. Sisyphus may understand the nature of Faith. He might realize that if he renounces absolutely everything, then it will all be there waiting for him on the other side of the hill. Leaving the rock behind he heads up the hill, but this realization trips him up at the top of the hill, and back down he goes. The paradox of it is that it is impossible to intentionally perform a leap of Faith since a successful result is implied and expected. It is only possible, with intent, to perform a leap of complete resignation and renunciation which, if done absolutely and without even a SUBCONSCIOUS glimmer of hope, will become a true leap of Faith.
We cannot choose to have Faith, we can only choose resignation and renunciation. We cannot intentionally put ourselves in a situation from which we can plan to make a leap of faith. We can fool ourselves, but we cannot fool God. We can go up on a hill and Vision Quest, but if we go up on the hill expecting to be transformed by a leap of faith that empowers us with a vision, we will only be fooling ourselves. If, however, we go up on the hill simply to meditate, pray and give thanks, it may happen that we will experience much more.
-Web |8-)P.S. To read more about Faith, get the book that contains two of Soren Kierkegaard's essays entitled Fear and Trembling and Sickness Unto Death It is very difficult reading, but worth the effort!
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